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Talk:Malayalam/Comparison of Chillu encoding proposals
Similar to പൊന്‍‌വീണ/പൊന്വീണ, there can be any number of words that may result from a simple sandhi in which the former word ends with a Chillu and later word starts with particular characters such as ന, വ, യ etc. Further, in poetic usage, such combinations are not rare especially when exact transliterations from Sanskrit etc. are considered. Almost all Arabic words that starts with 'Al' and continues with letters such as 'va', 'ya' etc. can result in wrong formation. For eg: അല്‍‌യമാമ / അല്യമാമ, അല്‍‌വഫ / അല്വഫ , അല്‍‌യത്തീം/അല്യത്തീം etc. More: kalviLakk~ കല്‍‌വിളക്ക് / കല്വിളക്ക്, കാല്വരി/കാല്‍‌വരി, കാല്യാത്ര / കാല്‍‌യാത്ര, പകല്‍‌യാത്ര / പകല്യാത്ര, വന്‍‌യാഴി (വന്‍പുലി) - വന്യാഴി, വന്യുഗം വന്‍‌യുഗം എന്‍‌യാത്ര / എന്യാത്ര എന്‍‌വാക്ക് /എന്വാക്ക്‌ നിന്‍‌വാതില്‍ / നിന്വാതില്‍ Unlike in Latin scripts, the separation of words (using spaces) are not strict in Malayalam in forming simple words to compound ones, especially in Poetry. This immediately brings in the possibility of unpredictable resulting words that may conflict with another existing word. Proper Nouns from Foreign Names can also have such effects. For eg: Ralvinom could be a name from a foreign language. It can appear ambiguously as റാല്വിനോം or റാല്‍‌വിനോം unless the conjuction is maintained by a unique code. If a single is used, then The RA, RRA source words cannot be reverse decomposed meaningfully when a text is processed for splitting sandhis later. There are numerous foreign words evolved and naturalised in Malayalam that originates from RRA source words and used with ര്‍ Chillu However, when seen from the Unicode/ Computerisation angle, this whole issue is not just of RA or RRA! (or of even using format control characters). Perhaps, we have overlooked the real basic issue by elaborating and arguing on these secondary problems. The Unicode aims in ATOMISING the most elemental and distinct ATOMS of a script (Not Molecules). If there is a common factor for more than one element, those elements themselves should be ENCODED SEPARATELY. However they still cannot be the ROOT LETTERS ( For eg: LA for ല്‍, RA or RRA for ര്‍ etc.) because the Chillu themself can have semantically different characteristics than the Root letters. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT UNLIKE OTHER CONSONANTS, CHILLU CAN BEHAVE LIKE VOWELS! On the other hand,THEY CANNOT BE TREATED AS PURE VOWELS AS THEY ALSO BEHAVE LIKE CONSONANTS! In Malayalam poetic metric studies, Chillu letters have no meter counts (Matra) as they are treated as 'pure standalone' CONSONANTS! The porposed Single Common Atom sharing for all Chillus will make that Atom behave like a Vowel LIGATE ( like VALLI or PULLI! This is not much different from using when seen from a fundamental computer semantic point of view! In fact, Unicode pages for Malayalam has a very clear and easy example for the whole issue, already implemented and working, the Chillu for MA, namely ANUSWAARAM! In all considerations, this is exactly a Chillu. Perhaps the notion that it is already part of Malayalam Alphabet in the Vowels table as AM has made us overlooking this great example! --ViswaPrabha വിശ്വപ്രഭ 15:31, 3 December 2006 (UTC)